If we end up with a population, it will be the result of a colonizer female who gets here somehow, some way, and the rest will be history.. The first European settlers arrived in the Texas Hill country in the early 1800s and viewed mountain lions as a dangerous threat to their own survival as well as a predator threat to their livestock. It may not surprise you to learn that I was quite intrigued by this third group. I live in Vermont and have seen, in broad daylight, a mountain lion (catamount, cougar, puma). When I accepted the assignment to write about my quest to uncover the truth regarding the existence of cougars in New England, I had little idea what I was agreeing to. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. We were talking about those animals, like coyotes and turkeys, that have re-established themselves in Vermont and, unlike the rattlers, are thriving. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. Face to face, maybe, with a sure enough catamount. And, if those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? Our county. In Vermont, for instance, a few dozen wild turkeys from Pennsylvania were released in 1969 and multiplied into the thousands we have here now. I wasnt planning to shoot her unless she moved in my direction. To Betty and Ottmann, the dominant narrative of the occasional itinerant cougar from the West is not particularly relevant to the facts on the ground. Ottmann and I walked farther. This assessment is echoed by the aforementioned Christopher Spatz, who has been studying cougars for better than 20 years. Responding to complaints about a predator eating a local farmers sheep, Crowell and a small group of fellow hunters had tracked the big cat through the snow. The animal was shot in the town of Barnard on Thanksgiving Day 1881 by a man named Alexander Crowell. There is a lot of good habitat between here and the places where there are established populations of mountain lions, he said. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. Nostalgia for the Wild The regions top predator, the coyote, is classified by biologists as a mesopredator (a type that in New England includes skunks and raccoons), which feeds primarily on smaller animals. This was as clear as day had a long tail and long body I was thinking someones pet was on the loose or escaped form a zoo !! No way to proveor disproveit. You need to understand that every biologist that works for the state has a duty to deny mountain lions. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. Stratton Magazine Celebrating Manchester and the Mountains. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. Green Mountain Lion Corp. Home; Apply Now! The one killed on the Connecticut highway was on a journey worthy of Odysseus so it isnt likely that there will be a thriving population of mountain lions in Fairfield County, raiding backyard cocktail parties, anytime soon. Running into a mountain lion can be a scary experience. Those who believe the growth and expansion of mountain lion populations to be a good thing routinely make the old, you face a greater danger of being struck by lighting or drowned in the bathtub argument and it is no doubt accurate. And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? We told him what we saw, and he confirmed other sightings on the property. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. Predator removal was steady and unforgiving from the early 1800s . The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. Some people say they have seen a catamount in the woods. No need since so we guess it has moved on from the northeast corner of Connecticut. For who but we humans can look across the landscape and not acknowledge our role in the diminishment of cougars and the myriad ways in which we have knocked the landscape out of balance? As pets or for exhibit. Because while male cougars eventually strike out on their own and occasionally wander far from home, females are, as Morse puts it, hardwired to remain close to their mothers home range. Around 7:10 pm this evening August 02, 2022 my wife entered our Oakwood Farm business off 6 Weed Road in Essex Center with headlights on. The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. Chance of snow 90%. He never found the evidence. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! Harrigan is 72 and lives just outside the northern New Hampshire town of Colebrook; he has a long, craggy face that seems almost to have molded itself after the mountainous landscape of his home state. Growing up in northern Vermont, Id heard stories of sightings, though always a few steps removed from the tellersomebodys cousin had seen a cougar cross the road on their way home from deer camp up in Canaan (or was it Coventry? But that was OK. Bo Ottmann, A Lobster Trap Menorah Shines in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Chips Off the Old Block | Knowledge & Wisdom, Yankee Candle | New England by the Numbers, First Christmas | Krissy OSheas Scandinavian-Inspired Holiday Cottage, The Sweet Life | Holiday Baking with Dorie Greenspan, 2019 Yankee Magazine Editors Choice Food Awards, In the Kitchen at Mayfair Farm | Weekends with Yankee. A 2,000 Mile Journey Blodgett liked talking about this subject. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. In this case, there was the carcass of a deer, recently killed in the area where a couple had reported seeing what looked like a mountain lion on land they owned. Out & About | Best New England Holiday Events for 2019. Stupid me grabbed my camera and a stick as to protect myself ( yes stupid idea as I could stop this thing from attacking me lol. Friends that go backcountry skiing in Vermont have reported seeing tracks to me many times and I have seen pictures of the pawprints myself that look overwheming like a mountain lion. Bennington, VT (05201) Today. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. Theres probably 100 in Connecticut, Ottmann interrupted, rolling a cigarette as he spoke. Low 24F. [An overabundance of deer] means our forests are getting older and older and not being replaced. He also points to the influx of invasive plant species in New England as evidence of an out-of-control deer population. At the head of the driveway is a flower sales table in front of a modest size greenhouse. But it was also a male. Tried to see "mountain lion" and agree that what appears to be a long tail is most likely the . The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. By now, I knew the answer to that one. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. Mountain Lions - Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service) NPS.gov Park Home Learn About the Park Nature Animals Mammals Mountain Lion Mountain Lion Last updated: May 4, 2018 Was this page helpful? It was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. There are so many great sites out there devoted to. Ottmann nodded. A deer is a wild animal and it is always a pleasure to see oneunless it is in the high beams, at night. 3 talking about this. I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. Many on both sides of the cougar debate beileve that New Englands natural habitat would benefit from having an apex predator in the ecosystem again. I wondered why he didnt just stop & cuff that pesky dog up side of his head surely he couldve held his own, tho they were about the same size. However, when I asked the room of 200 or so people how many believe they had seen a mountain lion/cougar/puma/catamount, hands shot up all around the room about 25% of those present. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. Using DNA and physical evidence, state environmental officials said they determined that the animal likely trekked more than 1,500 miles from South Dakota, a journey that was captured by trail camera (above). In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. Neither resemble a cougar! I think of Aldo Leopolds Thinking Like a Mountain essay about how deer decimated the forests and died of starvation because of humans incessant desire to kill. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. I also had the vague notion that when it comes to cougars, people tend to sort themselves into one of three camps. Vermont offers plenty of habitat in which mountain lions could thrive. I got the glasses to my eyes and focused on the animal. Females ranges are much smaller so it will take reintroduction or a few savvy wildlife biologist in the dead of night. I thought about why this might be and the best I could come up with for an answer is that we feel a kind of nostalgia for the wild. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. Ottmann grew up and still lives just minutes from the tavern; his familiarity with the establishment was obvious (after we met in the parking lot, he led me into the building through the kitchen, greeting each of the staff by name). Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. I also know of someone who said they showed F&G a photo of one from a game camera in NH. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. It jumped 28 feet across the road. Cougars, Lynx, Bobcats, Wolves, Bears etc were and are a In March of 1965, the Colorado legislature repealed the old mountain lion bounty of $50, which was first enacted in 1924. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. These settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible. My own inclination, for the little it matters, is to side with the professionals like Blodgett. If its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. Especially by one that he remembers involving a kill site.. The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. One summer I saw what I assumed was the same cougar several different times in my neighborhood which was near a long strip of woods along I 91 and used to be a large open field across the road from our home. In the second camp, there are those issuing the denials, pointing to the lack of photographic evidence, or the absence of tracks, or the simple truth that many people dont seem to know the difference between a cougar and a bobcat and a lynx and even, in some cases, a golden retriever. Finally, in the third camp, there are the true believersthe cougar truthers, if you willthe men and women for whom the only logical conclusion (often reached after a significant investment of time, thought, and sometimes money) is that right here, right now, cougars live among us, feeding and breeding and rearing their young, and that suggesting otherwise is sheer ignorance, willful denial, or part of a mosaic of conspiracy. I saw a cougar in Wolfeboro NH crossing / running across 28 ; close call between myself and a car traveling in the opposite direction over 12 years ago . Middlebury, Vermont | Could You Live Here? I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. 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